The past couple of days, my father and sister have been hosting little fungi in our kitchen (aka a sourdough starter) and today we are baking some sourdough bread!
If you haven't made sourdough bread before, there's a lot of waiting involved. You've got to wait for a week or so for the yeast to develop and grow, constantly feeding it flour so it can multiply. So if you want a quick, easy bread, you can make a quick bread (it's actually called that!), bread without yeast.* The recipe my father and I used is on page 368 of the Practical Encyclopedia of Baking by Martha Day, but we used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat. I will include a reliable sourdough recipe similar to ours here.
The Process
- Yeast can be naturally found in dark rye flour, so that's what we are using. My dad combined dark rye flour with water to create our sourdough starter. Then, he fed the starter for days with flour and more water to get what he calls "lots of yeasty beasties". He fed it a lot on Saturday and then let it get sour on Sunday.
- Combine flour and salt, create a well and add water. Mix. Once Indregients are stuck together, continue to activate gluten strands by kneading the dough with the heel of your hand.
- Put the ball-shaped dough in a large bowl with olive oil and put the bowl (with the dough) into a warm oven. Let the dough puff up. Knead the dough.
- Put the dough into a lightly greased loaf pan. Place into the oven for further rising. This took us a long time due to the amount of whole wheat my dad put in. When it poofs up spring in with flour to make it pretty. Slice the dough a quarter of an inch deep end to end with a knife Put it back into the oven.
- Then we ate it, with lots of butter!
Natalie
*I have not used this recipe but it seemed reliable.
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